Gay couples rush to tie knot

Judge opens same-sex nuptials to all in Cook County

February 23, 2014|By Juan Perez Jr., Tribune reporter

Mona Noriega and Evette Cardona, both in their 50s, will celebrate 20 years together next year.

But on Friday, there was an urgency to get to the next step in their relationship. Hours after a federal judge ruled that same-sex marriages didn't have to wait until June in Cook County, the couple hurried over to the clerk's office to get a marriage license.

"I was just skipping all the way here. I don't know why," said a clearly elated Noriega, chairwoman of the city's Commission on Human Relations. "I have loved her, she has been the love of my life."

A simple wedding was planned for Saturday. "We'll round up family, whoever's around," Cardona said. "We want to do this. Let's get this done."

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman's ruling was announced late Friday morning, and by 7 p.m. 46 gay couples had come to room CL-25 in the lower level of the Daley Center to get a marriage license. Many snapped selfies as they stood in line to fill out paperwork and lay out $60 for the license.

One couple was married on the spot by County Clerk David Orr, who had chosen not to fight a lawsuit seeking to scrap the June 1 effective date of Illinois' same sex marriage law.

Among those who lined up were Annie Avery, 49, and Alison Gross, 52, who have been partners for 23 years as of Sunday. They exchanged texts all afternoon from their downtown offices in an effort to coordinate the stop at the Daley Center. Accompanying them were their daughters Grace, 12, and Lily, 7.

Avery and Gross expected to be grandmothers by the time this day came. With a mortgage, a car and a family, they admit they feel married already. Their daughters were excited about their parents' big day, and already thinking about what they would wear. Friday's ruling left little time to plan a big ceremony.

"I always wanted to be like your bridesmaid or something, but that's probably not going to happen, so I'll just pretend to be your bridesmaid," Grace said to her parents.

Judge Coleman's ruling applies only to Cook County. In her decision, the judge wrote that "there is no reason to delay further when no opposition has been presented to this Court and committed gay and lesbian couples have already suffered from the denial of their fundamental right to marry."

Gov. Pat Quinn signed the state's same-sex marriage bill into law in November during a ceremony at the University of Illinois at Chicago attended by more than 2,000 supporters. Since then, at least two couples have been granted the right to marry before the June 1 deadline because one partner faced a life-threatening medical condition.

But as of Friday, same-sex partners in Cook County didn't have to wait. Licenses are valid for 60 days after they are issued.

Jeff Woods, 52, and Tom Wray, 39, held a civil union ceremony in 2012 during Chicago's International Mr. Leather convention. Following Friday's ruling, they elected to marry immediately.

"We've been together for seven years," Woods said. "So in some ways it's a formality, but it's a formality we've been looking forward to for those seven years."

The men ducked into a coffee shop outside the county's vital records office after signing their paperwork. Wray began calling friends in an effort to find someone to officiate at their wedding ceremony.

The couple planned an impromptu bachelor party at a leather bar in Rogers Park on Friday, with a quick wedding set for Saturday morning.

When Wray came out in the late 1990s, the idea of marriage was just "a pipe dream." Woods, a southerner clad in a black motorcycle jacket and tie, said he went to his first gay bar at age 22, but knew he was gay long before then.

"At that point, it was more about surviving and making sure you didn't get offed," Woods said. "Especially in rural Alabama."

Woods and Wray clutched each other's hand.

"And here we are," Woods said. "It's about dang time."

Noriega and Cardona said they always knew same-sex marriage would someday get approval.

"But we never thought we would see it in our lifetime," Cardona said.

"Now it can be forever, forever, forever, right?" she said to Noriega.